Fossilize

Pronunciation

• UK IPA: /ˈfÉ’s.ɪl.aɪz/, /ˈfÉ’slÌ©aɪz/

Alternative forms

• fossilise

Full definition of fossilize

Verb

1. (transitive) to make into a fossil
• 1989, Grant Naylor, Red Dwarf: Infinity Welcomes Careful DriversMost of the booths had been scooped clean by the scalpel-sharp corner of the glacier in the crash. Three remained. Two of them were punctured and, inside, the once-human occupants had been fossilized into the walls by centuries upon centuries of patient ice.
2. (intransitive) to become a fossil
3. (figurative, by extension, intransitive) to become inflexible or outmoded
4. (figurative, by extension, transitive) To make antiquated, rigid, or fixed; to deaden.
• Elizabeth BrowningTen layers of birthdays on a woman's head
  Are apt to fossilize her girlish mirth.

Synonyms

• (To become a fossil) fossilate dated, fossilify dated

Related terms

• fossilization